Charm Bracelet
by GryfoTheGreat
Summary: Six charms for a bracelet. Six people that shaped her life. Rated T for language.


**Random plot-bunny hopped into my head last night, so I had to write it down. This contains a meme and ShikaTema. Also some spoilers for Gaara's background. I'm pretty sure the end isn't canon compliant, but we haven't got that far, and I haven't read that far.**

**This is also the first part of the Jewels series. It can be read alone,though.**

**Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo, not me.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>Temari had a bracelet.<p>

It wasn't a very pretty thing. It was a simple, silver chain link one, and Temari almost dropped it back into the sand she'd picked it up from.

Mama stopped her.

Mama was short, with green eyes (Papa said sea-green. Temari hadn't ever seen the sea, so she wasn't sure about that. But they were pretty). She had a gigantic fan that made these huge winds, and she also had a habit of setting the kitchen on fire, which was usually when 'Maru ran in, freaked out and threw water over everything.

That said, Temari adored her.

"Hey. Don't throw that away." Mama frowned at her. Papa said that Mama was poor when she was Temari's age, which was why she made them eat the burnt and soggy food that 'Maru had rescued.

"Sorry." Mama was sorta scary, but she still loved her.

"Oh, I've got an idea!" mama's eyes brightened, and she smiled a little.

"What is it?" Temari was only two. Like most other two year olds, she was very curious.

"We can make you a charm bracelet. Like your aunty Yashako."

"You mean like the pretty shiny clinky thing she let me play with last time?"

"Yes. We'll make you one. Would you like that, Temari?"

"Yup."

So later on that night, Mama gave her the shiny bracelet back, except this time it had a white thing in the shape of a ball hanging from it.

"Because that's where your name came from. A good name makes a good person."

A year later, mama went out (yelling. a lot. That was the one time that Temari was truly scared by her mother) and didn't come back. All that came back was a quiet, red and sandy baby called Gaara.

* * *

><p>When Temari was seven, her uncle Yashamaru gave her another charm.<p>

"Well, a charm bracelet is useless with only one charm. Karura would have liked to give you another one."

Temari looked over her shoulders. Her father usually threw something at the wall when her mother's name was mentioned.

Her father wasn't here, though. He was probably upstairs doing Kazekage stuff. Temari didn't know much about her father's job, except that he was the strongest ninja, he wore a big hat and he was scary.

So Temari, by extension, was scary as well and she had to play with Kankuro, which was useless because he was a cry-baby. Oh well. She could live with it. It was still better than playing with her littlest brother.

"Look."

Yashamaru held out his hand, and in it was a tiny hollow tin heart with a crack down the middle. You could push it together to make it a proper heart again.

Temari picked it up, and attempted to push the pieces together, but they wouldn't stay.

Yashamaru gave her a big smile, and clipped the cracked heart onto her bracelet.

"Be happy, Temari. Your mom wanted that. And-"

A loud wail cut him off. Gaara, again. Maybe one of those scary bloody men. Yashamaru called 'em 'sassins.' Or something like that. She hadn't been listening properly, as she'd been talking to the kettle.

"I've got to go."

And off he went.

A year later, Uncle Yashamaru-the closest thing she had to anything resembling a parent - was murdered by her sociopath six-year-old brother.

* * *

><p>The third charm came from her dorky brother Kankuro.<p>

"Hey, sis! Come over here!"

It had been a week since she'd graduated, but she hadn't got any missions yet. The instructors at the school had been ordered to wait until Gaara graduated to put her on a team. The same went for Kankuro.

They'd be put on a team together, and she'd be forced to spend time with the insane jinchuriki.

'_He's not my brother anymore.' _Temari thought. _'Not since he killed Yashamaru.'_

"TEMARI! COME _OVER_ HERE!"

Okay. Maybe she'd better listen to him. Kankuro's voice could get very, very loud.

She stomped over. She had decided that she'd try mood swings today.

"What, Kanky?"

"Don't call me that!"

"I will if I want to!"

"Hmph. If ya keep callin' me that, I won't give you the present that I made _especially_ for you.

"You made me... a present?" Temari was stunned. Her lazy, ever-so-slightly overweight brother actually made her something? Hell was freezing over, or Gaara had turned out to like bunnies. Whichever.

"Yeah. I made you a charm thing. Y'know, like the heart and the ball? For graduating."

"Lemme see."

Kankuro opened his hand. In it was a miniscule puppet.

"Try workin' it."

As every child in the Suna academy had been taught to do, Temari formed a string a chakra from her finger and attached it to the back of the puppet. She yanked it a little, and the puppet clapped its arm's together. She yanked it another way, and it waved one of its arms in the air.

"That," she breathed," is so cool. Thank you so much, Kankuro!"

He flushed a little. "No problem. Um-OW, TEMARI! LEGGO! GEROFF!"

"Surprise huuug."

"Freak."

"Love you too."

They heard something behind them.

Gaara stood there glaring at them-should a nine year old be able to glare? - and told them:

"Shut up , or I'LL KILL YOU."

They shut up.

A year later, Kankuro graduated. Temari got him a diet book. He wasn't happy.

* * *

><p>She got her fourth charm from her dad.<p>

Gaara had just graduated, and they were due to go out on their first mission, a routine border patrol towards the west.

As she was packing, Temari heard a knock on her bedroom door. She stretched, sighed, and opened the door. Instead of seeing Kankuro, as she had expected, she saw Baki.

"Why are you here? The mission doesn't start 'til two."

"Your father wants you."

Her jaw dropped. "Are you sure he doesn't want Gaara? Because-"

"He very clearly said that he wanted you." Baki cut in. "Come on."

A few minutes later, she was standing in front of her father's office. She gulped slightly. She'd been in here before, of course, but it was still freakin' scary.

Baki motioned towards the door. "Go on in."

Her father sat at an ancient desk. Stacks of paperwork piled high on the desk, and she could see the desert out of the circular windows.

Her father looked up. "Sit down, Temari."

She sat down awkwardly in one of the stiff, straight-backed chairs that were positioned in front of his desk.

"You're going on a mission with Kankuro and Gaara today."

"Yes."

"Do you feel confident about this?"

Temari _didn't_ feel confident about this-the border patrol part was fine, but she had to spend time with creepy Gaara.

No. She couldn't say that.

She took a deep breath. "As not only the Kazekage's daughter but a kunoichi of Sunagakure, there is no question about confidence. I will get the mission done, no matter how much it scares me."

Her father smiled wanly. "Good girl. Here." He held out a hand towards her.

Temari leaned forwards, and in his hand she saw a piece of silver in the shape of a kunai. It was tiny, and looked sharp.

"This is a charm for that bracelet of yours. Let it remind you that you may never fail - and if you do, well..."

She leaned forward and took the charm. Clipping it onto her bracelet, she stood up, and bowed.

"Thank you, Kazekage-sama. I will return with good news."

She left the room.

Her father watched her go out the door. he pinched his nose with two resembled her mother so much that it made it painful to even look at her.

Half a year later, her father died. She still can't sort out her feelings about that.

* * *

><p>The fifth charm came from a lazy layabout.<p>

They stood beside each other, watching Gaara, their leader, _her_ little brother, yell orders at frantic shinobi troops.

Shikamaru stretched, and put his arms behind his neck. He looked rather bored, despite the fact that they were standing on a battlefield, facing imminent death. "We're ready to go now, aren't we?"

She nodded. "Yeah, we've just got to get into our proper positions. Then, we fight. And, of course, get maimed and or injured. Dying is, of course, a possibility as well." Why was she saying this? Pre battle nerves. Of course. Why had they chosen now to strike?

He looked at her sideways."In case of that outcome..." He lowered his arms, and began to rummage in one of the pouches strapped to his waist.

"Knew I put it somewhere...God, where the fuck is it? This is troublesome... here it is." He showed her a piece of wood with the kanji for 'deer' engraved on it.

She looked at the thing, then at him. "What's that?"

"Oh yeah, you wouldn't know. Well, it's a piece of a stag's antler. It's a protection charm, in my family. We're given one when we become ninja."

"And you're giving this to me? Why?"

"Well. If you die, it'll be, y'know. Troublesome."

"Why exactly?" She loved teasing him.

He looked up, and Temari swore that she could see a faint blush of red on his face. "Because I was planning' to ask you out after this."

She grinned. _'Yes!'_ In her mind, she was doing the victory dance and punching random walls.

"Oh God. I am _never_ gonna hear the end of this from Kiba." He looked at her, scowling

She elbowed him. "Nah, I'll punch him first. Anyways, you're not joking...are you? Because I'm a little screwy, and Ino is a lot prettier than I am."

"Can't marry her. That'd end the whole Ino-Shika-Cho thing, and our dads would kill us."

"So you're sure?"

"Yup."

"Completely sure?"

"Yes."

"Double sure?"

"You're being troublesome now."

"Good."

"Why?"

"Because now I'm sure you're not an imitation. No-one apart from you would tell his future girlfriend that she's troublesome."

He laughed at her. "Well, I know you're screwy. I am, too. So, y'know. It'll work."

"It better. I've been waiting for this for about 3 years."

"So have I. Well, it's gonna have to wait until after we finish killing these guys."

"Which won't be very long, of course.

"Nah, it won't. Let's go."

One long bloody battle later, she hugged her boyfriend for the first time. Of course, he was half-dead, but did that really matter?

* * *

><p>Her final charm came from her slightly insane little Kazekage brother.<p>

She stood beside him at Kankuro's hospital bed. The idiot had gone and gotten himself stabbed. His injuries weren't fatal, but they weren't that easily healed, either. Kankuro was asleep, only snoring slightly. His red wound on his side had started to heal, but slowly.

Gaara, was sitting on the ground, emptying his gourd. The nurses tried to stop him, but he just glared at them (she had to get him to teach her that), and they left the room.

The sand was bloodier than ever, and every so often Gaara picked a lump of something out of it. Temari shivered every time this happened.

But one time was different.

"Look, Temari." Gaara's voice-low and soft- sounded, calling her over.

"Gaara, I really don't want to see a lump of S-class missing-nin."

"It's not. Look."

He held out something towards her, and she walked towards him and looked at it.

"It's a piece of glass." Why was that in his gourd?

"I think it's from my battle with the Uchiha boy. When lightning meets sand, you get-"

"Glass... Wow."

"Here. You can have it. For your bracelet."

She took it, and admired the strange blue light that emanated from it.

"It's made from my sand...so it's got some of my chakra, I suppose," Gaara explained.

"So it's like I have a piece...of you?"

"Yes."

She leaned down, and gently hugged her little brother. After a moment's hesitation, he put his arms around her too.

"Thank you, Gaara."

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><p><strong>Review, please! I'd like to see what people make of this.~Gryfo<strong>


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